GPS Collars (Cat)

Author
Discussion

Davie_GLA

Original Poster:

6,521 posts

198 months

Sunday 8th May 2016
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Morning all.

I've been looking at the offerings on the market but they still seem very large and bulky. I'd love to see what my cats get up to when they're out and about but not at the cost of having a heavy collar around their necks.

Are we still a long time away from small GPS enabled collars? The GPS sensors themselves are tiny, i've dismantled a few GPS cameras etc but it's the batteries and holders for sim cards etc. that i guess take up the most time. The limitation in the main seems to be as always the battery. Anything small enough isn't likely to provide the power needed or the battery life that would be of any use.

Even taking away live tracking and "putting up with" plugging them in when the cat returns still leaves the battery issue.

Anyone use anything for their pets?





Davie_GLA

Original Poster:

6,521 posts

198 months

Tuesday 17th May 2016
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No?

pidsy

7,958 posts

156 months

Wednesday 18th May 2016
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wasnt there an EE advert a little while ago (kevin bacon) that had pet racking "coming soon" as part of it?

have you looked at Loc8tor? - their stuff has get more cat friendly recently.

lenats31

438 posts

172 months

Wednesday 18th May 2016
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Would never put a collar on a cat.

I assume you are worried about where the cat goes and where it is when it goes outside.

If you have a garden. Make that a safe and interesting place for your cat to be in.

Its a win win solution. A whole lot less stress for the cat and for you. Less costly and less vet bills. A cat garden can ve made very cosy both for the cat and the owner




mids

1,505 posts

257 months

Wednesday 18th May 2016
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Davie_GLA said:
Anyone use anything for their pets?
I use the nano but it's on my dog which weighs 13kg (a pup so still growing). I've mounted it on his harness and although he never seems to pay it any attention it's a bit chunky so I don't think I'd consider using it on a cat but happy to answer questions if you want to know anything about how it works day to day.

eybic

9,212 posts

173 months

Wednesday 18th May 2016
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lenats31 said:
Would never put a collar on a cat.

I assume you are worried about where the cat goes and where it is when it goes outside.
I think he is just interested in what the cat gets up to rather than concerned.

pidsy

7,958 posts

156 months

Wednesday 18th May 2016
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lenats31 said:
Would never put a collar on a cat.

I assume you are worried about where the cat goes and where it is when it goes outside.

If you have a garden. Make that a safe and interesting place for your cat to be in.

Its a win win solution. A whole lot less stress for the cat and for you. Less costly and less vet bills. A cat garden can ve made very cosy both for the cat and the owner
ah, a Catio (as americans like to call them). ive seen this done over here but they always look a bit thrown together. there are companies that specialize in these installs in the states - some of them are incredible.

lenats31

438 posts

172 months

Wednesday 18th May 2016
quotequote all
pidsy said:
ah, a Catio (as americans like to call them). ive seen this done over here but they always look a bit thrown together. there are companies that specialize in these installs in the states - some of them are incredible.
The pictures were taken during the cold months. It is in full Bloom now with flowers and all. We use a large cable drum as garden table. This also Works as a scratchpost for the cats. All we need now is a rope around it.

The most importens thing is what it does: keeping the cats safe

Here are sone ideas. You May not understand a whale lot of what is written inhere. But the pictures in the links are good.

Altan: balcony
Have: garden
Løbegård: catio

http://www.katteindhegning.dk

Then just cocktail away on the links in each section

Edited by lenats31 on Wednesday 18th May 18:12


Edited by lenats31 on Wednesday 18th May 18:14

DKL

4,480 posts

221 months

Wednesday 18th May 2016
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Loc8tors work well enough. We've found cats and collars when we would have had no chance without. I do keep looking for the next thing as the loc8tor is far from fool proof. At midnight in the rain when one of them is missing and I'm getting nothing on the loc8tor some idea of where to look would be helpful.
I've looked at the type of thing falconers use for their birds but they are significantly more expensive (some of those birds cost thousands mind) but more importantly I don't think their systems would work well on the ground.

Greendubber

13,129 posts

202 months

Sunday 22nd May 2016
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eybic said:
I think he is just interested in what the cat gets up to rather than concerned.
Walk to neighbours garden, take a crap, repeat biggrin

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Sunday 22nd May 2016
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lenats31 said:
Would never put a collar on a cat.

I assume you are worried about where the cat goes and where it is when it goes outside.

If you have a garden. Make that a safe and interesting place for your cat to be in.

Its a win win solution. A whole lot less stress for the cat and for you. Less costly and less vet bills. A cat garden can ve made very cosy both for the cat and the owner



In what way is that interesting for cats? It looks like a giant cage - they couldn't get out if they wanted to.

Cats are interested by smells, and wildlife. A cat-friendly garden is one full of plants, with a pond and trees, and frogs, butterlfies, ladybirds, spiders and hedgehogs. Cats like to hunt (and to play at hunting). They like to climb, creep, hide and investigate.

Edited by Doofus on Sunday 22 May 10:11

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Sunday 22nd May 2016
quotequote all
lenats31 said:
Would never put a collar on a cat.

I assume you are worried about where the cat goes and where it is when it goes outside.

If you have a garden. Make that a safe and interesting place for your cat to be in.

Its a win win solution. A whole lot less stress for the cat and for you. Less costly and less vet bills. A cat garden can ve made very cosy both for the cat and the owner



In what way is that interesting for cats? It looks like a giant cage - they couldn't get out if they wanted to.

Cats are interested by smells, and wildlife. A cat-friendly garden is one full of plants, with a pond and trees, and frogs, butterflies, ladybirds, spiders and hedgehogs. Cats like to hunt (and to play at hunting). They like to climb, creep, hide and investigate.





Edited by Doofus on Sunday 22 May 13:47

Davie_GLA

Original Poster:

6,521 posts

198 months

Sunday 22nd May 2016
quotequote all
Thanks all. Yes I'm more interested in seeing where they go ..

I have a huge garden but it's pretty open, they disappear for hours in the woods.

AstonZagato

12,652 posts

209 months

Monday 23rd May 2016
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I bought one off amazon that was tiny - looked like a bowtie (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B010HJY2KM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). It claimed that you could text the SIM and it would reply with a set of gps co-ordinates (and send back pictures / various other stuff. It didn't work. It's now in a drawer.

bigandclever

13,750 posts

237 months

Wednesday 25th May 2016
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I use a G-Paws. It's hardly tiny but it's small enough for my vermin. Also, it's 'passive' in the sense that you need the unit in your hand to download the data; it doesn't allow live tracking. So entirely useless if they go missing, but interesting enough to find out where they've been after the event.

ETA This is what you get ...



Edited by bigandclever on Wednesday 25th May 15:09